Presidential luxury trumps democracy in Nigeria. The Nigerian government this week approved plans to buy two new generation Falcon 7X jets and one Gulfstream G550 for the presidential fleet at a cost of US$150 million amid efforts by the government to raise funding for elections.
Prosecutors at Taylor’s war crimes trial claim that the former Liberian president was in South Africa in 1997 to trade uncut ‘blood diamonds’ for weapons that he then gave to Sierra Leonean rebels. Taylor is being tried on charges of fueling the long and bloody civil war in Sierra Leone.
Zimbabwe’s national airline, Air Zimbabwe, has reportedly secured a deal with French aviation giant Airbus for the supply of two Airbus A340-600 long haul passenger jets and one Airbus A319 jet to replace its aging fleet of Boeing 737 jets scheduled to retire in 2011.
Photojournalist Tawanda Mudimu takes a look at the lives of ordinary South Africans living in a peri-urban settlement in Woodford, Kwazulu Natal. After harvesting corn in commercial farms, the villagers collect shelled maize cobs for use as fuel for cooking in their homes. Although they live in an area with access to electricity, their homes are not connected, and they use wood and other fossil fuels for cooking.
Tom Burghardt: When investigative journalist Daniel Hopsicker broke the story four years ago that a DC-9 (N900SA) “registered to a company which once used as its address the hangar of Huffman Aviation, the flight school at the Venice, Florida Airport which trained both terrorist pilots who crashed planes into the World Trade Center, was caught in Campeche by the Mexican military … carrying 5.5 tons of cocaine destined for the U.S.,” it elicited a collective yawn from corporate media.
MI5 is investigating whether the Russian intelligence service channelled money into Britain to fund several spy “sleeper” cells.
A Zimbabwean farmer, Elsie Hipkin (74) of Chipinge, was attacked by three armed men at her home in Chipinge, Manicaland province.
Zimbabwe’s Zanu PF political and military elite are seeking to capture the country’s diamond wealth through a combination of state-sponsored violence and the legally questionable introduction of opaque joint-venture companies, a new report from Global Witness reveals today.
WINDHOEK, Namibia — Supporters of three HIV-positive women in Namibia who say they were sterilized without their consent held protests to support the women’s decision to sue the government, a legal aid group said Wednesday.
On Jan. 25, 2007, Karen and Stone walked into the offices of Johnston-Namibia in Omaruru. Chris Johnston says the two intimidated workers and took financial records, computer files and photographs. Three months later, the two arrived in Bangkok and went to Designs in Vivid Color, a gem-cutting business. An employee there told Chris in a letter that Stone flashed a badge and threatened to call Thai police unless the employee cooperated. The couple left with more than 5,000 gemstones. Chris insists the two stole them.
